The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Outrunner]

Anyone else had or planning on having a similar conversation? I earn 'well' for London, but retaining my salary while living somewhere in West Yorkshire would be the equivalent of a 20% payrise.

Not quite the same conversation but I am thinking of leaving work. I don't think they've provided a particularly safe environment to work in and I personally find it irresponsible that they've been actively encouraging the public to come in during lockdown (it's a public library so was allowed to stay open). Upper management have been awful as well. The official line is "come to us if there are any problems, concerns or worries". The actual response is to passive aggressively threaten jobs and tell us off for being negative if staff raise concerns. I've had enough for years and thought dropping to just Saturdays while I was at uni might make a difference but their covid response has me tempted to just leave. I have savings, a casual job at the uni as a student ambassador and I've heard there might be jobs coming up in the uni library, so I have options

[Zilnad]

I also want to quit and go somewhere else but it's rough out there right now. I think I'll speak to the agency again (even though they were pretty useless earlier in the year) and pester them to find me something.

Returning to the office for 5 days a week, with an hour commute each way, for literally no benefit is going to be hell. The fact that my anxiety is through the roof about it because of how awful my bosses have been really doesn't help. I feel sick to my stomach about going back into the office when it's safer. I honestly don't know how I'm going to cope mentally. Even just acknowledging the situation makes me want to cry.

[Tomous]

In the new year, I'm planning on telling my work that I have no intention of returning to the office and they can either keep me on or I find a new job.

My girlfriend and I live in Zone 2 and both of our offices are in Canary Wharf, and we've both been working from home since March. Our tenancy is up in May 2021 and we have no intention of staying in London long term - we don't want to buy here and we don't want a family here. We would prefer to move back up north (both went to Leeds Uni) and I see no reason to extend our current tenancy where we're paying a little over £1,500 a month in rent, when I can quite clearly do my job from literally anywhere.

Replacing me would be enough of a ballache that I hope they'll just say 'yeah that's fine, so long as you come down to London a couple of times a month/when necessary'.

Anyone else had or planning on having a similar conversation? I earn 'well' for London, but retaining my salary while living somewhere in West Yorkshire would be the equivalent of a 20% payrise.

How big are the companies? Have they mentioned long term post covid plans yet? My current company have been quite vocal about long term plans and infact are already putting in training sessions for managers to support what they have in mind.

Canary Wharf offices aren't exactly cheap. If they have staff who can work fully from home without hindrance, they should be considering downsizing their office space.

[Drumstick]

We both work for the same company and have made a seamless transition from office working to working from home. There are rumours that the company is edging closer to offering the option to WFH permanently which would be brilliant, meaning I could move somewhere cheaper whilst retaining my existing salary.

[Moggy]

We both work for the same company and have made a seamless transition from office working to working from home. There are rumours that the company is edging closer to offering the option to WFH permanently which would be brilliant, meaning I could move somewhere cheaper whilst retaining my existing salary.

I'm a permanent home worker now and the thought has crossed my mind that I could live literally anywhere. My wife wouldn't go with it though, she needs to be reasonably close to Bristol.

We have a bloke on our team now who lives in Liverpool so it's certainly something the company doesn't seem to mind.

[Qikz]

They've just given us our Christmas cover and it's so much better this year. Rather than working 2 days we're working 1 and being on standby for the other one just in case we're needed. We then get the final third day off and if you had it booked with holiday like I did they've given it back!

Hell yeah. That's really nice news.

[aayl1]

That's nice to hear, Qikz! Makes a change from your recent updates about them!

GG how's the new equipment working out?

[Lagamorph]

I'll be on call for one day over Christmas, but I get a £100 bonus for it even if there's no callouts.

[Green Gecko]

That's nice to hear, Qikz! Makes a change from your recent updates about them!

GG how's the new equipment working out?

The results are pretty damn good and best of all it's FAST, I'll upload something.

Here you go



That's my partner's gecko Stubby by the way, although I raised her from an egg (from the breeding pair I also kept until they passed away eventually - at one point, I had about 15 juvenile giant day geckos. I think in one month I sold more geckos than T-shirts ).

As for the image, it's literally just a 72dpi smartphone photo that my partner drew some vector stuff over and then gave up on, but I liked it enough, I thought I would print it on a spare ladies' tee I have as a gift. Print size is A5 but goes up to A4 or multiple positions.

I just need to pay them as they STILL haven't raised any kind of invoice yet. I sent my purchase order about 3 and half a weeks ago.

There's a lot of stuff I need to get uploaded today that I made before the pandemic that I'd normally sell in person around this time of year (and stuff I didn't sell last year), then I need to immediately turn my attention to printing full colour stuff on this machine and the pile of shirts I have. I've got 12 months to make back my investment. Obviously, it makes sense to list my existing stock before I spend time on new designs and prints, but any inkjet has to be kept working or it may block, so I'll fire off something random at least once a week on that. If everything goes to plan, I'll be printing hundreds per month or quarter i.e. making back pretty good on my investment but I don't expect that to happen honestly.

The printer and the associated heat curing unit Ricoh sent me by accident are small enough to take to an event for print on demand, something that's never really done with that degree of quality, so, that's another potential avenue to explore after lockdown. Something totally impractical before, although I'm still without a vehicle and transporting a printer with ink in the tubes is risky..

[aayl1]

Looks pretty sweet

[Green Gecko]

I just need to (a) make lots of art (b) license everything in the world (well, the demographics I'm interested in) and I'm good.

Neither of those things are even remotely easy however

This is at least my fourth piece of equipment (or plant and machinery / capital asset if you are into your corporate accounting terms) and it doesn't really work like

BUY MACHINE

INSERT BUSINESS HERE

LOOK AT THE BILLIONS

Oh how it does not, AT ALL, work out like that. But hey, it's fun and rewarding (sometimes).

[Zilnad]

Just received a receipt from the directors for their "work lunch" that they went out for today. Tier 3 clearly states you shouldn't be socially meeting anyone outside of your household and then these banana splits are going out for a meal together at the first opportunity.

I hope they strawberry floating catch it and spread it to each other before they get a vaccine. Arseholes.

Really makes me want to go back into an office, doesn't it? When the directors clearly don't give a gooseberry fool about any kind of health and safety.

[Dual]

I just need to pay them as they STILL haven't raised any kind of invoice yet. I sent my purchase order about 3 and half a weeks ago.

Sounds like you need to dissolve your business and get a free printer

[pjbetman]

I broke down on the phone to my Dad earlier about a shitty email I got saying I acted inappropriately and they're not happy.

All I did was after they bought something up about me yesterday was call one of them (with the hopes of calling the other after as they were on the phone and were until the end of the day) to explain the situation, then was unable to call the other person. At the very end of the day I sent a message (as they were still on the phone and this is 5 minutes after closing time) that said 'It's cool I don't want to keep you, I'll speak to you next week. Have a good weekend!' since they're off today.

Apparantly this was rude and I can't figure out what the strawberry float im doing wrong. I work the way I want to, close all the tickets and they say no don't do it like this. I change how im working to how they want me to work, close all the tickets still and they say im still doing it wrong. What the strawberry float do you want me to do? I'm literally closing the most tickets by the end of the day and yesterday I answered the most calls. What am I doing wrong?

I dont know what the 'shitty email' entails but i'd say that, like most companies, they dont like people going against the grain. It matters not one strawberry float how good you are at your job, but they will be looking at things to criticise you as you might be causing grief at work. They're your employer so it's not good if you dont comply. If i was you i'd carry being 'obstructive' or whatever they deem to be the problem, whilst looking for another job. Dont let the banana splits grind you down.

[pjbetman]

For example, the same select few getting Christmas off year on year because they are the boss/friends with the boss/have kids/submitted a form a year in advance again/whatever reason you can think of, while everyone else fights amongst themselves over who's turn it is to stay at work.

Ah, the old 'i have kids' chestnut. Shittest form of favouritism there is in the workplace.

[Green Gecko]

I just need to pay them as they STILL haven't raised any kind of invoice yet. I sent my purchase order about 3 and half a weeks ago.

Sounds like you need to dissolve your business and get a free printer

Lol, unfortunately one of the downsides of a sole trader is you are personally liable for everything, but on the plus side my finances remain a private matter (not that there's anything to gasp at, I'm basically as economically poor as they come, however I would suppose, less a household, be materially wealthy because I'm well aware many people have not much besides perhaps a mobile phone, a tin of beans and some basic clothing).

Going to go half way and register for VAT though, so I can claim that back. You can go back something silly like 7-9 months so I'll get a good cheque from HMRC when I sort it out.

As for the now, I need to get those tees uploaded. It's weird, sometimes it's the hardest thing, you make some work, print something, whatever you manifest as an artworker, and it can be a real psychological hurdle just to make it available for sale. It'sfucking stupid as you'll never sell anything that way but when your drive is foremost making the stuff compared to selling it, you feel like the work is done when the hard work is actually selling it. And all that despite having sold all of these same designs before at least once. I'm practically sitting on a pile of money that would at least sort out the interest on the printer and I'm physically running out of space now as well

[pjbetman]

I also want to quit and go somewhere else but it's rough out there right now. I think I'll speak to the agency again (even though they were pretty useless earlier in the year) and pester them to find me something.

Returning to the office for 5 days a week, with an hour commute each way, for literally no benefit is going to be hell. The fact that my anxiety is through the roof about it because of how awful my bosses have been really doesn't help. I feel sick to my stomach about going back into the office when it's safer. I honestly don't know how I'm going to cope mentally. Even just acknowledging the situation makes me want to cry.

Go to your GP and get a long term sick note, at least 1 month. And just keep renewing it. Find another job whilst you are off.

[Tomous]

I also want to quit and go somewhere else but it's rough out there right now. I think I'll speak to the agency again (even though they were pretty useless earlier in the year) and pester them to find me something.

Returning to the office for 5 days a week, with an hour commute each way, for literally no benefit is going to be hell. The fact that my anxiety is through the roof about it because of how awful my bosses have been really doesn't help. I feel sick to my stomach about going back into the office when it's safer. I honestly don't know how I'm going to cope mentally. Even just acknowledging the situation makes me want to cry.

Go to your GP and get a long term sick note, at least 1 month. And just keep renewing it. Find another job whilst you are off.

Yep, do this. Your GP will happily sign you off if you tell him youre struggling mentally.

[Zilnad]

If I was in the office, I would probably do that. As it is, I'm still WFH (after much fighting for it) so I'll continue on for now. Touch wood, I'll be WFH until April at least.

Thank you both

[Qikz]

This week has been so tiring holy gooseberry fool. They turned around today and said to my friend it's not busy why are you complaining. People are closing like nearly 30 tickets each this week, that's strawberry floating insane for the job we do.